Last week, a friend of mine from college came to stay with me for a few days, as he normally lives in The Netherlands, but comes to Minnesota a couple of times per year. I'll call him "Ron" (because that's really his name.) Ron has a lot of friends in the Twin Cities, so he is often out and about visiting during his stay here, and on his last day he invited me to join him and two others for lunch. Seems each of the other two have some sort of connection to Africa, so he thought I might enjoy meeting them.
We first drove in to Minneapolis to pick up friend #1, I'll call him Henry. Then we drove to pick up friend #2, I'll call her Anna, in Brooklyn Park. Then we had to find a place to eat - and ended up at Rocky Rococco because both Henry and I were jumping up and down in the back seat of the car in excitement because we both thought Rocky Rococco was gone from this world.
Anyway. We sat at lunch chatting, and Anna talked about her experiences in Malawi. Then Henry talked about his experiences in South Africa. Then it was my turn. I started by saying I was involved with a small non-profit based here in Minnesota which has been providing scholarship funds for AIDS orphans in Tanzania, and now we are building a school. Without missing a beat Anna asked if I was working with the Augustines. Seems she grew up 4 houses away from them in a small town north of the Cities. Then Henry asked if I had heard of Books for Africa, and when I said how much we love Books for Africa he beamed and revealed he is on their board of directors!
Ron thought we might enjoy hearing each others' Africa stories but I honestly think he felt a little left out when Henry, Anna and I discovered how much we really did have in common!
As Carla said in her blog, you just never know when you might be the cog in the mysterious workings of the universe.
2 comments:
Yeah, but were they REALLY named Henry and Anna?
For purposes of privacy and confidentiality I am unable to release that information at this time :-)
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